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From this point do I just need to wait on the nitrates to build up? Will they take care of the rest of the ammonia/nitrites? How high should they be before I do a water change? Are we close to getting our fishies??

I want to see the ammonia and nitrite go away, which should happen in a few days. Then we will add more ammonia and watch it clear.

What is the situation with the fishies? Do you have some in another container or are you going to buy some?

Were going to buy a couple at the LFS, my wife was hoping to get them this weekend.

We arent able to get down there during the middle of the week due to logistical problems and work schedules so if it were to cycle up in the middle of the week how long would it stay cycled without fish? Would we be okay to wait until the following weekend?

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We want to grow enough nitrifiers to eliminate 2.0 ppm ammonia and the nitrite it produces overnight. They might take a week to grow, but after that you should be able to add two small fish and keep them safe. You don't have to worry about starving the nitrifiers. Bacteria do not need a steady supply of food. When it runs out, they just go into a resting state until more food shows up.

Here's an alternative which involves switching from fishless to fish-in cycling. Do a 100% water change in your tank and go get one small fish. Also get Seachem Prime water conditioner if you don't already have it Put little fishie in the tank to which you added a dose of Prime (even if you have already used a water conditioner), feed very lightly, and test ammonia and nitrite every day. It should stay zero, but Seachem Prime will protect the fish from up to 1.0 ppm of ammonia/nitrite. Any time you have a non-zero ammonia or nitrite reading, do a 50% water change. If ammonia and nitrite consistently read zero by the end of the week, you can go get fishie number two. This involves more work and attention than completing the fishless cycle, but it gets a fish in your tank sooner.

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We want to grow enough nitrifiers to eliminate 2.0 ppm ammonia and the nitrite it produces overnight. They might take a week to grow, but after that you should be able to add two small fish and keep them safe. You don't have to worry about starving the nitrifiers. Bacteria do not need a steady supply of food. When it runs out, they just go into a resting state until more food shows up.

Here's an alternative which involves switching from fishless to fish-in cycling. Do a 100% water change in your tank and go get one small fish. Also get Seachem Prime water conditioner if you don't already have it Put little fishie in the tank to which you added a dose of Prime (even if you have already used a water conditioner), feed very lightly, and test ammonia and nitrite every day. It should stay zero, but Seachem Prime will protect the fish from up to 1.0 ppm of ammonia/nitrite. Any time you have a non-zero ammonia or nitrite reading, do a 50% water change. If ammonia and nitrite consistently read zero by the end of the week, you can go get fishie number two. This involves more work and attention than completing the fishless cycle, but it gets a fish in your tank sooner.

My wife decided we can just keep going with the fishless cycle since weve already made progress on it, might as well see it out to the end so we know how its done completely beginning to end. Another reason is she wants us to both get our fish the same day. Which makes sense so we won't have to make two 100 mile round trips to get two fishies.

So we will just keep the fishless cycle going

Since we are staying on this path, what is the next step for us to take?

Oh I also want to thank you all again for the help, it has been so great to not have to go into this blindly! I will likely sub when I get my teaching career going

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If these were my fish, I'd change all the water in the big tank and put the little fishies in. You have populations of both ammonia oxidizers and nitrite oxidizers. Not huge populations, but your little fish won't produce much ammonia unless you get really carried away with the feeding.

If you want to continue the fishless cycling, do a 75% water change since both excess nitrite and nitrate inhibit nitrite oxidation.

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If these were my fish, I'd change all the water in the big tank and put the little fishies in. You have populations of both ammonia oxidizers and nitrite oxidizers. Not huge populations, but your little fish won't produce much ammonia unless you get really carried away with the feeding.

If you want to continue the fishless cycling, do a 75% water change since both excess nitrite and nitrate inhibit nitrite oxidation.

Thank you so much for the quick response Shakaho!

I personally would like to get them into the bigger tank sooner than later so I would put them in the bigger tank. My wife wants to know which is healthier for the fish. I can keep doing daily water changes on the 10gal no problem, so either way, I can handle the work.

But if we were to do the 100% water change, how would I go about doing that? We have the sand on the bottom and the vacuum wont suck out all 100% of the water... should I do 2x 75% water changes back to back to be certain that 100% has been changed?

Also, should I make a run through the substrate with my hands to aerate the substrate?

One last thing, you say if I don't get carried away with the feeding, what does this mean in terms of how much to feed, how often?

I have Omega One small pellets for the morning, and Repashy Soilent Green Gel food for the evening. I am planning on doing two feedings, one in the morning, one in the evening. I also have a suction clip and some omega one 100% seaweed sheets I picked up today that I would feed as treat, as well as all the frozen peas, fresh veggies, etc. needed to keep their diet consistently varied (we keep three bearded dragons and always have fresh kale, squash, carrots, cucumber, and many others on hand).

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Just do the math. Your fish will produce the same amount of ammonia in either tank. Without cycling or water change, the concentration of ammonia will be 4 times as great in a 10 gallon tank as in a 40 gallon tank. But you have both types of nitrifiers in the 40 gallon, so the ammonia will be even lower there.

I should have said ~100% water change. Just empty as much as you can. We just want to get the nitrite out. Treat the fresh water with Prime and put in a tablespoon of aquarium salt or other pure NaCl. You can get Morton's Pickling and Canning salt at the grocery store -- cheap and pure. The salt will protect the fish from nitrite damage if the nitrite should spike.

I recommend you feed them a "mouthful" three times a day. Goldfish will gobble up food until no more fits in the mouth. Then they will pause to chew -- one mouthful. Now these guys are just getting used to the new home and new food, slow they will eat a little slower for a few days. Once they get the hang of it, a mouthful will take less than a minute to scarf up.

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Began draining the 40b about 30 minutes ago, should be done shortly. Then I will be filling it back up, adding 1tbsp of mortons canning salt, and dosing prime. After I dose prime, do I need to dose it every 48 hours until the cycle is built up enough to take care of the ammonia? How often do I need to add salt? Should I wait a little bit to add the fish or should I add them immediately after I fill and dose? Should I do 50% (or more) water changes every 4-5 days after this?

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Start out changing 5 gallons per day. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the five gallon bucket of fresh water and Prime for treating 5 gallons. As long as ammonia reads zero, you don't need to add extra Prime. Do check your pH as well as ammonia and nitrite. We want to be sure it stays steady.